


Sand Dunes

by SainaTsukino



Series: Follow your heart [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: :/, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background one sided obi-wan>anakin, Everybody Lives, He would have heard all about her since owen and beru lived with her for a while, Luke is a litteral piece of sunshine, M/M, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, YES LUKE KNOWS ABOUT SCHMI FIGHT ME, but this time I went with canon so, seriously this might be my less rare rarepair ever, sorry I usually ship obi-wan/hapiness, the opposite of obi-wan/hapiness I guess, tumblr drabble expended, when did my ao3 become a repository for rarepairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 03:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9859547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SainaTsukino/pseuds/SainaTsukino
Summary: As far back as he could remember, Bodhi had endless dunes of sand stretched across his back. High in the sky over them, twin suns blazed cruelly away. Two tiny pricks of heat each side of his spine, as exciting as they were disappointing – his soulmate was not on Jedha.Luke wanted to join the imperial academy so much that it burned. A field of star streaked his skin from hip to navel, full to the brim with tiny imperial ships. His soulmate was a pilot, and he longed to join them up in the sky.Eventually, despite the Empire and the war, they meet.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eisoj5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eisoj5/gifts).



> Welp so I wrote a short "what if" drabble on tumblr after I went to see Rogue One where Luke and Bodhi were soulmates, but with the kind of mark that doesn't show you a thing about the person, but rather a thing about where they are. Then it kept eating at me and I decided to make it longer. I will probaly write other parts with my soulmark headcanons about other characters, so stay tuned!
> 
> Dedicated to the person who got me hooked on that pairing in the first place with her excellent fic, I guess I'll know when I get there (go read it!)

 

As far back as he could remember, Bodhi had endless dunes of sand stretched across his back. It wasn’t, as far as soulmate marks went, particularly informative. A lot of people had sand, sandstorms, dunes, or other sand-related images somewhere on them where he came from. Until the Force blessed you with something more specific like a building or a distinctive rock formation, there was really no sure way to know where, exactly, to start looking.

He knew that despite all of the holovids and the gossips and the fairytales, a lot of people did not actually go looking. If your soulmate was on another planet and you were stuck on Jedha and poor, then you were shit out of luck.

And Bodhi, of course, had never been lucky. High in the sky over the sand dunes on his back, twin suns blazed cruelly away. He knew that is was impossible, but sometimes, he could swear that he could feel them. Two tiny pricks of heat each side of his spine, as exciting as they were disappointing – his soulmate was not on Jedha.

They were not, as far as he knew, anywhere the empire ruled. In the dead of night and the silence of a cargo’s cockpit, it was a comfort. More and more so the older that he got. As a teenager, he would have given anything to meet that person just for him. Someone who would understand the way that his heart beat with the rhythm of a sublight engine, the way that he could spend hours just staring at the sky, the way that the stars felt like a tangible presence, humming in his bones whenever he looked up. Perhaps his soulmate would be a pilot too. Or a beautiful diplomat, visiting Jedha for… well, for some reason. Maybe they’d be a guardian, coming from another planet to study the whills!

Now, though, he was almost happy never to meet them at all. The Empire had taken all of his dreams and torn them apart. If he met them, then it would only be a matter of time until the Empire happened to them, too.

Just like the holy temple, everything that Bodhi had once yearned for was slowly being corrupted. Flying was no longer a pleasure. Instead, he was filled with anxiety every time that he found himself in a pilot’s chair, wondering if today was the day that he’d make a mistake, the day that they’d decide to be rid of him. He had developed shaking knees and steady hands. He’s learnt to hide his thoughts behind a mask and pretend that he wasn’t about to jump out of his skin every time that an officer looked at him.

Like everyone else, he’d followed the official ‘dress code’ and always wore a shirt over his mark, even in the privacy of his quarters. Dreams of his soulmate had been replaced with more short term desires of companionship.

Daydreams about daring space adventures had turned into a single, desperate goal: to get away.

 _You can be a good man,_ had said Galen. _If you follow your heart._

Bodhi hadn’t looked at his mark in five years. He wondered what the person on the other hand would see, when he finally did decide to follow his heart and leave the Empire. He wondered if they’d care.

\--

 

Luke wanted to join the imperial academy so much that it burned. A field of star streaked his skin from hip to navel, full to the brim with tiny imperial ships. His soulmate was a pilot, and he longed to join them up in the sky.

It wasn’t Biggs, he didn’t think. The cold emptiness of space had replaced sand dunes and mysterious statues on his flank long before Biggs had left for the academy. (But still, crushes are crushes, and sometimes he hoped.)

He’d never seen the marks of any of his other friends, because marks were private for free people. He knew that his was different, though, because he HAD seen the marks of a few slaves, before he could realise what he was looking at. He’d also seen his aunt’s and uncle’s. None of them had moved, except to change scene. And certainly none of them had _glittered_. But Luke’s was as animated as a holovid. The ships moved to and fro all of the time, and the little stars twinkled merrily. Privately, he was delighted. That must have meant that their soulmate-ness was _special!_

But then, after Biggs told him about joining the rebellion, and in the space of a few days, Luke’s sides hurt and burned. The images changed and changed and changed, faster than they’ve ever had, and the empire’s shuttles and flag vanished so fast it’s like they’d never been there at all.

For a day or so, Luke _hoped._ His soulmate had just defected, he was sure. They’d joined the rebels. Maybe it was Biggs after all; maybe it was one of his friends. Either way, Luke swore to himself that he was getting up there, as soon as he could. Surely his uncle would understand. He’d been raised on the stories of Cliegg Lards coming all the way to Tatooine to free a woman from slavery, after all. Luke would just be following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

And if his soulmate turned out to be as kind and as strong as his grandmother Schmi had apparently been, then uncle Owen couldn’t really disapprove, now, could he?

Their story was quite nice, and still talked about by the old ladies at market. Cliegg Lards had the twin Tatooine sunrise on his throat, but he still married his childhood sweetheart first. He was a practical man, and lots of planets had two suns after all. But this his wife died, and three years later he had an opportunity to more to Tatooine and become a farmer with one of the settler programs. He took it, why not? Being a merchant had been his wife’s family business, and the increasing monopoly of the trade federation had all but killed the space nomad’s livelihood anyway. He arrived on planet and met Luke’s grandmother, and loved her until his dying days.

Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were also soulmates. They both had their farm on their hearts, and lived in the calm happiness of knowing that they were where they were meant to be. Luke would be damned if he was going to be the first in his family to _not_ find where he belonged, too.

But then fire and ashes replaced the bright stars, and the images stopped changing. Luke locked himself in the fresher and tried not to cry. He knew what this meant. He had seen too many marks turn black and ugly not to know.

For a terrible day, he moped around the farm, convinced that his soulmate had died before he’d even managed to find them.

Eventually his uncle lost his temper. Just as he was crossing from his room to the garage, Luke heard him in the kitchen, arguing with his aunt.

“He’s got too much of his father in him,” he growled. “Obsessing over his soulmate like that. If he’s not careful, he’ll end up just the same.”

He stopped in his tracks, unsure of what to do. Usually he would have listened in, trying to find out more about his parents. Had they been soulmates? Had then _not_ been? What were their marks like? He placed a hand on his side, feeling a hot pulse of warmth radiating from his mark even through the thick cloth of his clothing. He bit his tongue. He didn’t know what it was that he wanted to hear.

Fortunately (not not), his aunt and uncle didn’t end up saying anything of sustenance. They were distracted by the arrival of the Jawas on their property, and Luke came out to assist.

And then, well. There were droids, and a princess, and a handsome scoundrel. So many things ended up happening at once that Luke had no time to _think,_ let along notice that, slowly, the blackness on his side was lessening.

He had more to mourn than someone he’d never met, anyway.

He wasn’t the only one mourning. Before they got to Alderaan, he walked in Ben, mostly on accident. He was looking for the kitchen on Han’s maze of a ship (it later turned out that it didn’t have a kitchen – how disappointing).

At first, he just saw a sliver of red. Thinking that the old man was wounded, he rushed into the room. But then Ben hurriedly slid his sleeve back down and Luke stopped in his tracks. His brain replayed the last few minutes, and he realised that the crimson flowing down Ben’s forearm was a river of lava, not of blood. And it pulsed, just like Luke’s used to glitter.

They stared at each other. Luke felt his ears redden in embarrassment. Ben didn’t look angry, but he did look sad and resigned.  

He was about to say something, anything – probably stammer his way through an apology – when 3P0 stumbled into the room.

“Master Luke! There you are! Have you seen Artoo?”

“I think he might be in the engine room,” Said Ben, standing up. “How about we go look for him?”

He put his hand on Luke’s shoulder as he passed and then left with 3P0.

Left alone in the empty berth, Luke bit his lips. It was the first time that he’d ever seen a moving mark like his. Could it be… was it because of the Force? He itched to ask, but then he decided not to. A river of lava… It didn’t seem like a particularly happy sort of mark. And Ben had seemed so sad, too.

\--

After that, he decided to put soulmates firmly out of his mind. It didn’t seem to make anybody on board happy, and they had bigger problems to deal with.

It was only after the battle of Yavin and the destruction of the Death Star that the matter reared its head again. Luke was introduced to the team that made all of his possible. They were bedridden and injured, but those few that were conscious were good sports for his questions about the Empire, the battles, the Force, everything that he could think of.

Then he saw the pilot in a bacta tank, and it was like his whole world freezed for a few minutes. Something niggled at the back of his mind, and Luke was seized with the urge to walk around the tank, for some reason –

The pilot’s soulmate mark was on his back. Sprawling jungle and old pyramids stretched across shoulder to shoulder. Mist was drifting through the scene and a small bird took flight, disappearing into the ridges of Bodhi Rook’s spine. The sun peeked suddenly over the horizon, washing the scene in light.

Luke’s breath caught, and he didn’t have to lift his shirt to know that for the first time, their marks matched.

 


End file.
